After two weeks of non-stop cinema, the moment of truth finally arrived. The winners of the 77th Cannes Film Festival were announced at a gala ceremony on Saturday night.
The Palme d’Or, the fest’s top honor, went to Sean Baker’s sex worker comedy Anora. A nervous and shaking Baker took the stage and thanked the jury, saying he still “couldn’t believe it.” Baker said winning Cannes’ top prize has been “my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years.”
Baker also singled out Francis Ford Coppola and David Cronenberg, two veteran directors with films in Cannes competition this year, as major inspirations. Baker has come far, going from shooting his 2015 debut Tangerine an iPhone4 to winning the Palme d’Or. He is the first American director to win the Palme since Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life in 2011.
Anora is the fifth Neon film in a row to win Cannes’ top prize, following Anatomy of a Fall, Triangle of Sadness, Titane and Parasite. Neon haven’t yet set a U.S. release date yet for the movie but expect them to launch it in early October, as they have for their previous Palme winners, a slot that has proven successful both for awards season and at the box office.
The Grand Prix, presented in a surprise appearance by Viola Davis, went to Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, the first Indian film to play in Cannes competition since 1994.
Kapadia used her acceptance speech to express solidarity with the workers at the Cannes film festival who have been struggling for better working conditions, and displayed her red “Sous les écrans la dèche” button, from the collective representing freelance workers at the festival. The workers have been protesting throughout this year’s festival. Kapadia said the values that drive her as a filmmaker are “solidarity and empathy” and singled out the “many people who work behind the scenes at the festival, they have done a magnificent job, it is thanks to them the festival exists” before holding up her Sous les écrans button.
Iranian political melodrama The Seed of the Sacred Fig from dissident director Mohammad Rasoulof, who fled Iran just weeks before the festival, received a special award from the jury.
The stars of Jacques Audiard’s gender-transitioning Mexican crime musical Emilia Pérez won best actress, with Karla Sofía Gascón becoming the first trans actress to win in Cannes. Emilia Pérez also received the jury prize.
Jesse Plemmons won best actor for his role in Kinds of Kindness, Yorgos Lanthimos’ anthology film that re-teamed him with his Poor Things stars Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. The Civil War and Power of the Dog actor plays three roles in Lanthimos’ bizarre surrealistic triptych: A submissive businessman, a grieving police officer, and a bisexual cult member.
This has been a divisive Cannes and there was no clear frontrunner going into this year’s awards. Only a few movies — including All We Imagine as Light and The Seed of the Sacred Fig — have been universally embraced by critics.
Most have divided audiences. Coppola’s Megalopolis, starring Adam Driver, was both widely panned and selectively celebrated. Emilia Pérez was hailed by most as a masterpiece but left some critics cold.
Baker’s Anora was lauded by U.S. critics but dismissed by many in Europe as too mainstream for Cannes competition. Andrea Arnold’s Bird, a working-class melodrama with fantastical elements, similarly drew both praise and pans in almost equal measure. The Substance, from French director Coralie Fargeat and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, was hailed as a masterpiece and dismissed as an unoriginal update on David Cronenberg-esque body horror. Cronenberg’s new film, The Shrouds, also in competition, didn’t so much divide critics as leave them underwhelmed, with most calling the movie a muted version of familiar themes from the veteran Canadian filmmaker.
Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump movie The Apprentice, which looks at how the former U.S. president was shaped by his tutelage under cutthroat lawyer Roy Cohn (Sebastian Stan plays Trump, Jeremy Strong is Cohn), received the most press attention, particularly after Trump’s lawyers sent a cease and desist order to the filmmakers, trying to prevent the movie from being sold in the U.S. But Abbasi’s somewhat conventional biopic approach, and what some have seen as an overly sympathetic take on Trump’s early years, did not go over well with some critics.
One filmmaker everyone can agree on is George Lucas, who received an honorary Palme d’Or during tonight’s ceremony, for his contribution to cinema, from his first feature, THX-1138, which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section back in 1971, to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Lucas was presented with the honorary Palme by his old friend Coppola, who he called “a big brother and mentor” upon receiving the award.
A full list of winners follows:
Palme d’Or
Sean Baker, Anora
Grand Prix
All We Imagine As Light
Jury Prize
Emilia Pérez
Best Director
Miguel Gomez, Grand Tour
Best Screenplay
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
Best Actress
Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Emilia Pérez
Best Actor
Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness
Honorary Palme d’Or
George Lucas
Special Award
Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Camera d’Or for Best First Film
Halfdan Ullman Tondel, Armand
Palme d’Or for Best Short Film
Nebojsa Slijepcevic, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
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